The ability of informed consent. Clinical practice and ethical analysis

The doctrine of informed consent has become a legal and ethical standard in psychiatry today. However, ethical problems arise if patients lose the cap acity to give informed consent due to their psychiatric disorders. Particul arly in the field of psychiatry, the assessment of competence of informed c onsent to medical treatment and participation in clinical trials is a contr oversial issue. New empirical data suggest that a high percentage of psychi atric patients are incompetent according to defined standards for assessing their capacity to make treatment decisions. Assessing competence according to a sliding scale integrates the ethical principles of autonomy and benef icence and provides help in assessing competence in clinical practice.